AFP: Hussein Was Held by Kurds Before U.S. Capture

[zimv20]

link (http://quote.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000103&sid=aUBP42FLX880&refer=us)


Dec. 21 (Bloomberg) -- Saddam Hussein was captured by U.S. troops only after being held prisoner by Kurdish forces, who had had drugged and abandoned him, Agence France-Presse reported, citing a Sunday Express newspaper report.

The Kurdish Patriotic Front, which fought alongside U.S. forces during the Iraq war, held Hussien until it negotiated for more political advantage in the Middle East, AFP said, citing the paper, which quoted an unidentified Iraqi intelligence officer.

Hussein, who had been in hiding since April, was captured a week ago about 9 miles south of his hometown of Tikrit in northern Iraq, Lieutenant General Ricardo Sanchez, the top U.S. military commander in Iraq, said at a press conference then.

[wwworry]

I hope we will get some honest journalism and find out what really happened.

[zimv20]

link (http://sg.news.yahoo.com/031221/1/3gt36.html)


Saddam Hussein was captured by US troops only after he had been taken prisoner by Kurdish forces, drugged and abandoned ready for American soldiers to recover him, a British Sunday newspaper said.

Saddam came into the hands of the Kurdish Patriotic Front after being betrayed to the group by a member of the al-Jabour tribe, whose daughter had been raped by Saddam's son Uday, leading to a blood feud, reported the Sunday Express, which quoted an unnamed senior British military intelligence officer.

(more)

[wwworry]

interesting, if true. Let us hear more about this story.

[G5ROCKS]

What was the nature of the intelligence? Who knows? But let's pretend for a bit that we have captured Saddam Hussein and we are Kurdish forces. Just happened on him one day as he was driving around in his taxi. Let's also pretend that we could personally get 25 million dollars for calling up the local American commander and bringing him in. Or we might just decide to kill him on the spot after what he's done to our people over the years, and still get the 25 million. Now, instead of doing either of those, let's drug Saddam, hide him in a hole with a bag full of cash and a couple of weapons, and get nothing but a sorry little article in a London paper.

Anyone want to play Jeopardy? "What is that story is the dumbest, most illogical piece of crap to come over the wires in a long time, Alex"

[IJ Reilly]

You know, this story never made much sense to me either. Then again, neither did Saddam remaining a free man for eight months with a $25 million price tag hanging around his neck. But that's exactly what happened. If one of these stories seems to not make sense, then neither does the other. When all is said and done, we have to admit that we really don't understand how things work in countries like Iraq.

[G5ROCKS]

Remember Eric Rudolph? It took a while to catch that murderer.

[Sayhey]

I'm afraid it will take more than an "unidentified Iraqi intelligence officer" for me to believe this story. While I've seen some pretty wacky things that turned out to be true (CIA exploding cigars for Fidel springs to mind) I have to have a lot more to support such stories before I'd believe them. I'm afraid they do the critics of Bush's policy (in which I'm proud to count myself) more harm than good.

[Dont Hurt Me]

Sounds like a lot of bull, perhaps they are trying to take away the credit from the Americans/Bush. if this was true the media would allready be all over this story. a work of fiction

[g5man]

Originally posted by Sayhey
I have to have a lot more to support such stories before I'd believe them. I'm afraid they do the critics of Bush's policy (in which I'm proud to count myself) more harm than good.

You mean like this story.

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=514&e=16&u=/ap/20031230/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq_wmd_lessons

Here is one reporter who has spent a year in Iraq but yet manages to write a story that make more assumptions than I can count.

This story will add fuel to the fire that will burn those who assume WMD will not be found.

[Sayhey]

Originally posted by g5man
You mean like this story.

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=514&e=16&u=/ap/20031230/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq_wmd_lessons

Here is one reporter who has spent a year in Iraq but yet manages to write a story that make more assumptions than I can count.

This story will add fuel to the fire that will burn those who assume WMD will not be found.

I think your response to the article is more along the lines I was writing about. Your blind faith that WMDs will be found is very close to the use of anonymous sources to verify a story. I think a little more proof is necessary. So far, there has been no proof of WMDs in Iraq other than programs that existed long ago. It is for those who launched an illegal war on the basis of manufactured evidence to show that such weapons existed. Keep the faith g5man, maybe one of these days one of your assertions will bear fruit. What's the name of that cactus that blooms once every hundred years?

[IJ Reilly]

Originally posted by G5ROCKS
Remember Eric Rudolph? It took a while to catch that murderer.
Now, there's a poor analogy. I suspect that if the reward for Rudolph's capture was anything close $25 million, he'd have been found in weeks if not days. Also, trying to compare them on the basis of notoriety is also pretty lame. I mean, good grief, did Rudolph terrorize an entire nation? How may people could even identify his name, let alone, his face?

And to think, this could actually be an interesting discussion. Let me know when you're not quite so desperate to make a point.

[Durandal7]

I find it highly unlikely that a Kurdish clan with a blood feud against Saddam would let him live, much less leave him sitting around with automatic weaponry and $750,000 cash USD.

[wwworry]

it's funny about stories like this. They bubble up and then fizzle. I did not see a story that said it was not true but the lack of followup seems to doom the story.

We only know what they tell us.

[mactastic]

Originally posted by g5man
This story will add fuel to the fire that will burn those who assume WMD will not be found.

I'm guessing this post will be deleted at some point once Kay submits his report stating that all the evidence points to a WMD program that was largely dismantled after 1991 and never restarted on any seriously threatening level.

[zimv20]

this story keeps popping up. seems to have some legs.

link (http://www.sundayherald.com/39096)


it was a terrific chance for the perfect photo-op showing the American soldier, and Time magazine’s “Person of the Year”, hauling “High Value Target Number One” out of his filthy spiderhole in the village of al-Dwar.

Then along came that story: the one about the Kurds beating the US Army in the race to find Saddam first, and details of Operation Red Dawn suddenly began to evaporate.

US Army spokesmen – so effusive in the immediate wake of Saddam’s capture – no longer seemed willing to comment, or simply went to ground.

But rumours of the crucial Kurdish role persisted, even though it now seems their previously euphoric spokesmen have now, similarly, been afflicted by an inexplicable bout of reticence.


Whatever the full extent of their undoubted involvement in providing intelligence or actively participating on the ground in Saddam’s capture, the Kurds, and the PUK in particular, would benefit handsomely.

Apart from a trifling $25 million bounty, their status would have been substantially boosted in Washington, which may in part explain the recent vociferous Kurdish reassertion of their long-term political ambitions in the “new Iraq”.


i'm in no position to judge how valid any of these claims are. for my part, i found it odd how quickly after saddam's capture the WH blurted out: "no one gets the reward money." i read that as: "we're not revealing who actually got it".

[Ugg]

I read somewhere this weekend that the US was thinking about maintaining northern Iraq as a separate province for the Kurds. Although this rumor has been floating around for more than a year it seems that it would be the perfect payoff for the capture of SH.

[Neserk]

First let me say it is nice to see intelligent discussion of these things. When you get to know me better you'll understand why I say that. Not that most intelligent people don't enjoy intelligent conversations.

As far as these article goes I can see both sides of the story. I'm guessing that as usual we are not getting the whole story and there is a grain of truth in this story (assuming it is not mostly true). In a sense, that is stating the obvious. But what is obvious to one may not be obvious to all.